Hello All, I put the van into our garage a week ago. When i went in to the garage tonight there was a strong smell of fuel. tried to find an obvious leak, couldn't find one anywhere. Stuck my nose by the breather pipes and there was a strong smell of fuel. Bit of history, the breather pipes are not connected they have been hacksawed off above the leisure and main battery, the pipes are open at each end. When the van was on the drive i couldn't really smell fuel as it was in the open The question is can i simply block these pipes off so stopping the smell of fuel or how can i remedy this problem?
Whatever you do don't block off the breather pipes. The two pipes should be linked together with a Tee piece and the resultant single pipe fed into the air intake of the carb. If the pipes are blocked off the usual result is fuel starvation as the tank develops a vacuum.....likewise if they are left open the fumes can be drawn into the cab via the heating system as the tank contents warm up on a sunny day.
Thanks for the replys. Can you clear up the following question, is the air box that para mentions the same as the air intake of the carb i.e. the air filter on top of the carb and if so what is the best way to connect the pipe to the thing. I have a stock 1600 twin port, 009 distributor, single carb (with the pipe to the distributor blocked off and the pipe facing the back of the van blocked off as well) with a pancake filter They need connecting to your air box dude quote from paradox the resultant single pipe fed into the air intake of the carb. quote from fritt
You need to connect them to the tubes that run up the side of the air vents. If they are missing then you'll need to make some up that are higher than the filler neck. If you don't do this you'll end up with fuel pouring into the air filter (the box Paradox mentioned) when you fill it to the top. You'll get told to ditch the pancake filter. Many have had problems with these. If you do keep it, you'll need to make an adaption to the filter to take the breather pipe. I'd you do need to make up the breather systems pipe work, brake pipe works perfectly.
Wow - im quite glad i read this - the breather pipes in our engine bay arnt connected to anything! they just hang there under the roof of the engine bay!! with these not being connected is it possible it can cause you to stall when breaking or going round corners? (we have a slight problem with Tilly :-[) Im not sure what our problem is although i think the first thing i will do is replace the fuel filter and all the pipes etc (PS sorry about the thread jack ;D)
Blimey the world is fall apart around us. I'm going to agree with Baysearcher It won't have anything to do with your gas tank breathers.
Thanks for everybodies advice, i have taken it on board and hopefully sorted a bad situation our. I found some metal piping of the roughly the same diameter as the breather pipe that was left in the engine compartment and then joined them together with the pipe and fuel tubing, then connected with a t piece to the top of the air filter, as you can see fromt the first two pictures it is a pancake filter. Can you have a look at the pictures and let me know if this is a working fix or am i totally off the mark and i have to start again. If so can someone explain where i went wrong and what i should do next. Obviously please do not say i went wrong when i picked up my tools i get that enough in the real world this picture is a quick fabrication to get the pipe connected to the top of the air filter This picture shows the piping connected to the air filter going to the t piece this shows the connection above the leisure battery to the t piece This shows the connection above the main battery to the t piece
That plumbing is a vast improvement, at least you will not be inhaling petrol fumes, causing fuel starvation or even risking something more catastrophic caused by condensed fuel vapour dripping in the hot engine compartment. ps Thats a very restful choice of colour in there. )
Very tidy job Strictly speaking, you don't really need the clamps, but if you had them, why not. Assume you've still got all the pipework and capsules in the air intakes? PS Super colour, too !
Does the breather pipe have to be connected to the air filter on the carb (ie does it need the suction from the carb?) or can it be connected to a separate filter? (see CXE037 half way down this page: http://www.classic-car-accessories.co.uk/acatalog/ENGINE_ACCESSORIES.html Cheers s
